Stay in Touch
by choc0pretz
Summary: Rose Weasley, top of her class, is struggling in her fifth-year O.W.L. classes, so she decides to look for a study partner. An unlikely partnership proves fruitful, and leads to an unlikely friendship.
1. Making Sense

Standard disclaimer applies.

* * *

It's 7am on 1 September 2021, the first day of your fifth year at Hogwarts, and you are excited. You've missed your friends, and you can't wait to learn more magic. You tumble out of bed, bounce downstairs in your pajamas, and start to make a batch of chocolate chip pancakes they're Hugo s favorite, and he detests the first day.

By 8 you have the pancakes ready, but Hugo is still nowhere to be found. Despite the fact that you are still underage, you cast a simple freshness charm on the stack. You figure, Mum and Daddy are just in the next room eating their pancakes, and wander back up the stairs to get dressed.

Around 9:30 Hugo finally stumbles downstairs, bleary eyed and grumpy, his Weasley-red hair a mess. He throws himself into a seat and glares at the steaming stack of pancakes, Nutella, whipped cream and butterscotch chips. You laugh as Hugo wolfs down half the stack in an instant, brightens considerably, and slows down to slather on the sugar and condiments you prepared for him.

You leave for King's Cross shortly after 10am, and arrive 40 minutes later, walking a little unsteadily from your dad's questionable parking skills. You recover enough to jog through the barrier and immediately start looking for your friends and cousins. You hear your name called, and turn to see Alice Longbottom waving at you from the train. In the next 20 minutes, all your cousins drop by, so that when the train leaves, you, Alice, and Dominique Weasley, your best friends, your cousin Albus and his best mate Milanjot (Milan) Patil are sitting together chatting away. After a couple minutes Al and Milan wander off with James and Fred, so you spend the next couple hours with Alice and Dom, talking, gossiping, catching up, eating too many snacks from the trolley. As the three of you change into your Hogwarts uniforms, Alice and Dom gush about the prefect's badge pinned to your robes.

You arrive at Hogsmeade, take the horseless carriages up to the castle, sit patiently through the Sorting and applaud whenever Gryffindor gains a new member. After overindulging at the feast and listening to Headmistress McGonagall s start-of-term speech, you guide the new first years up to the portrait of the Fat Lady, say, "_Panthera leo_," and direct boys and girls up their respective towers.

As you stand in the common room watching the last of the munchkins wandering up the stairs and fondly remembering your own first year, Alice and Dom jump on you from behind, scaring the bejesus out of you. They ignore your protests as they haul you up the stairs to your traditional first-night-back girls' night with the other girls in your year.

Classes start. You have the same course load as last year, but this year is harder. Quidditch practice starts. You play Keeper for Gryffindor. You settle into a rhythm: you spend weekday afternoons on the Quidditch pitch or in the library, and weekends at Hogsmeade with friends.

The library has always been your sanctuary, and you've always preferred it for studying over the common room, which is much too noisy, but still is Alice and Dom's preferred spot. In your corner of the library, it s always been just you, your textbooks, and magic. But because O.W.L.s are coming up at the end of this year, and the magic has gotten more complicated, and the homework assignments are longer, even you, Rose Weasley, top of your class, are having trouble.

Late one night, you lay awake, staring at the ceiling, thinking about finding a study partner, but you don't know who. Alice and Dom would distract you, anyone else would irritate you by essentially asking you to do their homework. (You have experience with this; your boyfriend last year used you to do his homework.) Well, there s always the 2nd in your year... you push this thought from your head. Your father said to beat him in every subject, and you've always followed your Daddy's instructions. Studying together would not be conducive to following those instructions. But what if you start to fall behind? That would be worse. You sigh and make up your mind to go talk to Scorpius Malfoy the next time you see him in the library. Daddy also said not to get too close to Malfoy, but you figure that studying with the guy doesn't mean that you have to marry him. He doesn't seem that bad. He runs with Slytherins, is a Chaser for the Slytherin Quidditch team, but never plays dirty, unlike his teammates. And he's fairly popular with the ladies, what with his Quidditch-toned body, perfectly-proportioned face and his immaculate platinum-blond hair; not that you've ever spent any significant amount of time staring at him. Nope. You just hear things from other girls gushing about him.

He generally studies alone, and on a couple of occasions you have looked up from your work to find him staring at you from several tables away, only for him to quickly look away, making you think that you'd imagined it. Other times you see him sitting with his quill down, hand tangled in his hair glaring at the textbook, as if willing it to give up the answers. It is this image that gives you the courage to approach him after dinner next Thursday.

You stop by his table and hide the shaking in your hands by folding them in front of you. He looks up at you, says, "Weasley."

He is wearing a flat expression, not antagonistic, but somehow with a touch of... pleading? His usually-perfect hair is messed up; it looks like it s been another frustrating evening.

You return his greeting: "Malfoy."

"What do you want?" Again, his tone is not antagonistic, but rather curious and almost a bit hopeful.

You decide to stretch the truth to soften him up: "I was having problems with the Transfiguration essay-" that's the one he s working on right now- "and I was wondering if maybe the second in our year could help me out a bit." You make sure to emphasize _second in our year_; you have to protect your ego somehow.

He smirks. "Little Miss Perfect, brightest student in our year, needs help?"

You didn't come here to be teased, and you inherited your father's quick temper. "So I take it you're not willing to help? Okay." So you turn on your heel and feel Malfoy's hand catch your wrist. You turn to face him and he lets go quickly.

"You can dish it but you can t take it, eh?" You glare at him and don't say anything, so he sighs and says, "I was having trouble too. Let's talk about it together and see if we can make some sense out of it."

* * *

After another two hours poring over assorted, random, potentially relevant transfiguration books, discussing, writing, you sit back, rubbing your eyes, tired but satisfied.

"Thank you, Malfoy. That helped a lot."

He grins you notice how it reaches his eyes, and you understand now why he's so popular if he can do that and says, "I was about to say the same to you, Weasley. Let's do this again, sometime, yeah? It really was very helpful."

You smile; that's just what you wanted. "Sounds good. But I have to warn you, my study times are highly irregular."

"Okay, see you whenever, then."

* * *

When Professor Hargraves hands back your class' essays, he pauses by you and comments, "Very well-written essay, Miss Weasley. I was particularly impressed by your explanations of the esoteric uses of the spell."

You smile at him, saying, "Thank you, professor."

* * *

A/N: So what do you think of the second-person point of view? I decided to try it, and it feels a bit weird, unnatural. Maybe if I write a bit more I'll get better at projecting my own emotions onto you, dear reader?


	2. Huxiang Bangzhu

Standard disclaimer applies.

A/N: The title is a phrase in Chinese that essentially means "to help each other and achieve mutual benefit." That's what Rose and Scorpius are doing, helping each other with studies, and simultaneously improving themselves. Since I recently took Chinese, this phrase stands out as the nicest-sounding, most applicable title for this chapter.

* * *

Over the next couple months, you spend most of your time in the library studying with Scorpius Malfoy. You study everything: Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Astronomy. You both improve, and you can still report to your father that you're beating Scorpius Malfoy in every subject.

Outside of the library you rarely see Malfoy, except at Quidditch matches or in class. In the hallways you usually exchange a nod in greeting.

Sometime in early January you start to call each other by your first names, which is around the same time your friends find out who your new study partner is. At first they oppose the idea, particularly Al and Hugo, but you resist them, explaining that as first and second ranked in your year, it's a productive pairing. You invite them to join you, and after a remarkably short amount of time, less than two weeks, they quiet down and accept that a Malfoy and a Weasley can coexist, study together, and not demolish the library. Another reason is that O.W.L.s are coming up and many of your yearmates are spending more time in the library, cramming for the examinations. They need your help, and in order to get it, they need to stay on your good side.

At career advising with your Head of House Professor Saxby, you tell him that you ve always loved Astronomy, "Not just because you're the Astronomy prof," you assure him quickly, "but also because I want to do more than just plot constellations. I want to explore the stars."

Professor Saxby chuckles, asks, "Have you thought about Muggle science?"

"Yeah, starting the summer after third year, I've been studying Muggle math, physics, astronomy, and I want to take it somewhere."

"I have a friend, in America, who may be able to help you there. Your N.E.W.T.-level classmates may be interested too."

O.W.L.s come and go, the weather clears up, and you spend more time outside, sunbathing, playing Quidditch, and reading by the Black Lake, so you are infrequently in the library. You run into Scorpius on a sunny day a week before term ends, and you stop in front of each other.

"Thanks for helping me this year, Rose."

"No problem, and thank you for helping me. Have a good summer."

"Same to you - I'll see you in September."

* * *

A/N: Apologies that this chapter is so much shorter. I'll try not to make this a trend. Try being the keyword.


	3. Summer

Standard disclaimer applies.

* * *

Lazy days.  
Blue skies.  
Quidditch with family.  
Shopping with Alice and Dom.  
Nights spent staring at the sky, watching constellations turn, falling asleep under the stars. After two weeks of this you check out a university-level Muggle textbook on astronomy. When you finish the first one, you start looking at more books on astronomy, the history of space exploration, the Space Race, American and Soviet space programs. Soon you are spending your days sitting on a blanket in the field behind the Burrow learning Muggle science, astronomy, engineering, only interrupted by meals and Quidditch.

O.W.L. results come back, you are relieved to find that you've earned O's in everything.

The weather starts to cool, your sixth-year owl comes and you prepare to go back to school.

* * *

A/N: Sorry it's so short again. It's just a filler to follow up on a bit of the stuff that Rose talked about at career advising in the earlier chapter. It's important for the plot later, so thank you for bearing with me.


	4. Year Six

Standard disclaimer applies.

* * *

Sixth year starts uneventfully. Classes are a little harder than last year, but there isn't the pressure of O.W.L.s or N.E.W.T.s to drive you insane, or your yearmates to the library. You still sometimes study with Scorpius, but he is there less frequently than last year, as are you. You still play Keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and Captain Stephen Wood is as crazy about practice as his father.

It's December, and the Winter Ball is coming up. Alice and Dom, and all the other girls in the school for that matter, are incredibly excited and spend all their waking hours gossiping about who asked who, who wants to be asked by who and why it would be impossible, and such similar nonsense, but you find this tittering silly, and hole up in the library more than before, to avoid your insane friends. Lately they've turned on you, going all mysterious about knowing somebody who is going to ask you.

One rainy afternoon while you are in the library, somebody stops next to your table. You wonder why Scorpius isn't pulling out a chair and sitting with you, so you look up into the face of Daniel Hansen, a tall, charming, Ravenclaw with close-cropped brown hair. You know him, of course, because you are both prefects and have spent some time together in meetings, but not much other than that. You also wonder why he's stopping to talk to you when he never has before, but you figure it s something to do with prefect duties.

"Hi Rose," he says. "Do you have a minute?"

"Sure, Dan," you say, "what's up?"

"Well, I was just wondering if you'd like to go to the Winter Ball with me?" He sounds relaxed, but when you look up at him, his hands are folded as if to hide a slight shake.

You are a bit taken aback, flattered, yes, but you never expected this. Still, from what you know of Dan, he's a nice guy, and hey, he's sort of cute, and you've just noticed that his eyes are a warm shade of hazel, so you decide to try it out. Who needs your cousins' confirmation? So you smile, and say, "Yes," and stand to hug him.

He asks you to Hogsmeade with him once before the dance, and you spend that snowy afternoon getting to know each other better. The dance is, for lack of a better word, magical, and you are content through the Christmas holidays, and into the new year. When you describe your relationship to Alice and Dom, you tell them that it's perfect: as a Ravenclaw, he understands your drive to spend every spare moment studying. He is also an avid Quidditch fan, so the two of you have plenty to talk about. However, by late March, you start to realize that the initial spark has cooled off a bit and you're starting to notice some traits that really irritate you, such as his need to seek confirmation for every action he takes. You try to write it off as perfectionism for another month, but by the end of April you ve decided that spending so much time with him is damaging your relationship, and you might do better as friends. Somehow he senses this too, and one windy Thursday as the two of you are taking shelter under a large tree while meandering around the grounds, you say, "Dan-" just as he says, "Rose-" You look at each other and laugh nervously, you wave him on, "You go ahead." Your stomach clenches and you hope that what he says won't be contradictory to what you want to say.

"Rose, I," he looks uncomfortable, takes a breath, tries again. "I think we should take a break."

Your eyes widen a bit in surprise, but truthfully? You are a relieved.

Dan continues, "You know, with N.E.W.T.s coming up I want to study more and I don't want you to feel like I'm abandoning you." You snort inwardly at his transparent cover-up, but listen as he continues, "Plus, there's just that, you know when I'm with you I sort of just don't feel the same as it was in December, January, and I sort of feel like it's the same for you... I sincerely hope we can stay friends, though, and know that if you ever need someone to talk to other than your crazy cousins, I'll be there for you."

You close your eyes, a little hurt by his rejection, but still more relieved that you're on the same page. When you open your eyes Dan is looking at you, with a somewhat concerned expression, somewhat pleading, so you meet his eyes and smile, a little sadly, and say, "You read me so well. Of course we can stay friends, who else am I going to talk to about how awful the Chudley Cannons are? I'd be eaten alive if I tried to talk with my family about it..."

He laughs a genuine, unburdened laugh this time, and you step forward simultaneously into his warm goodbye hug.

"I'll see you around, Rose," he says as he walks away.

You wave, "Bye, Dan," still upset that this relationship is over, but knowing that your friendship will last so much longer than your romance.

_Caracal caracal_ gets you past the Fat Lady, and you see Alice and Dom poring over the Charms textbook, trying to charm each other's features. Dom's success is evident in Alice's hair: normally medium length, brown, and wavy, Alice's hair is now a vibrant shade of crimson and hangs to her waist. Upon seeing you, they wave you over, and Dom wails, "Rose! Help us! We can't get the counter-charm and every time we try, Alice's hair just gets longer or changes texture!" You are tempted to see what tiny curls would look like when Alice's hair is this long, but you just smile and sit down with them. But before you can tell Alice she's enunciating the spell wrong, they round on you. Apparently your smile has failed to reach your eyes.

"Rose."

A bit taken aback, and somewhat unwilling to discuss Dan, you hold your hands out in front of you and protest, "What?" But they glare at you until you grumble, "Fine. If you don't want to fix your hair, that s fine by me." They continue to glare at you until you sigh and sit down.

"We talked. He feels the same as me, he says it's just not the same now as it was earlier. So we're done, but we'll stay friends. It's like I told you, it's better this way."

Dom opens her mouth as if making to say something, then closes it, stands, and hugs you. There's just no words for this, and after a second, Alice joins. Suddenly a tall, black-haired figure comes barreling toward you, shouting, "Group hug!" dragging all of your cousins along. After a while, when you have finally sorted out whose limbs are whose, you dust yourself off and sit down, saying, "Now, about Alice's hair..."

Later that night, before you head up to your dorm, Al stops you, and you have a staring contest, which you win, when Al blinks and nods. Apparently you're okay.

Not much else happens for the last two months before summer vacation. You go back to studying alone in the library. Sometimes Scorpius shows up, and studying as a pair is no different from before: attempts to start a non-work related conversation are ended with monosyllabic answers, so you stick to studying.

Fifth years take O.W.L.s, seventh years take N.E.W.T.s, you and the rest of the school take finals. You sometimes see Dan in the hallways and exchange a few words. Sometimes he stops by your table in the library and you chat. It's not awkward, it's just easy, as a friendship should be.

Gryffindor wins the Quidditch Cup, as it has for the last decade, Hufflepuff wins the House Cup, and before you are fully aware of it, you are packed and standing at the Hogsmeade station, boarding the Hogwarts Express bound for London.

Before you board the train, you see Dan pushing through the crowd toward you. He stops in front of you, sticks out his hand, saying, "It was good getting to know you this year, Rose. Stay in touch, OK?" You smile up at him and instead of shaking his hand, you hug him. "Owl me sometime?"

The rest of the train ride is spent playing Exploding Snap, gossiping with Alice and Dom, and laughing with your friends and cousins.

* * *

A/N: For those of you thinking that no relationship is so perfect that the involved parties feel exactly the same at the same time and can break up without any fuss and drama and junk, that there is always one party that is more clingy than the other, I agree with you completely. But this is a filler chapter too. Plus I wrote it in the wee hours of morning when I just wanted to go to sleep so I wrote something easy. Somehow it's taking longer than I expected to get to my point.


	5. Summer Astronomy

Standard disclaimer applies.

* * *

It's 2am one day in mid-August, and you are sitting in the middle of the field near the Burrow, eyes glued to your telescope, watching {celestial phenomena} that will not reoccur for another 117 years. You have always loved astronomy, particularly during the summer when being nocturnal is less detrimental to your health. After leaving Hogwarts, you intend to start a company, along with several others of your N.E.W.T.-level Astronomy yearmates to investigate the possibility of using magic to facilitate space travel. Your team's ultimate goal is to design and build a magical space vehicle and travel to another solar system, perhaps to one of the planets that Muggle scientists have indicated as potentially harboring life. But until then, you spend your summer afternoons learning advanced Muggle science, and your nights with your magically enhanced telescope confirming Muggle astronomical data. Well, you've also played a bit of Quidditch with your extended family, celebrated several birthdays (including Hugo's and Uncle Harry's) and consumed endless amounts of your Nana's delicious creations. You've also received a handful of letters from Dan, who is going into Magical Law and is spending the next year interning at the Spanish Ministry of Magic in Madrid, but that's really beside the point. You, Rose Weasley, truly love astronomy and are the most driven, brightest young witch of your age, evidenced more by your summers than your school year studies.

* * *

A/N: Again, sorry this chapter is so short, it's just a bit of a filler. It will be important for Rose's future. Also, I'm not sure what celestial phenomenon occurs in summer 2023 and doesn t reoccur for another 117 years, so I'll leave that up to your imagination. Maybe you like this one better than the summer post-fifth-year chapter?


	6. Ballroom Dancing

Standard disclaimer applies.

* * *

Your last year at Hogwarts starts much the same as the last two: you wake up early, make pancakes (blueberry this year with fresh fruit on the side) and board the Hogwarts Express for school. You, Alice, and Dom are excited to see each other again and spend hours together, laughing, talking, gossiping, and catching up on the last three months. You are interrupted only by the Sorting of wide-eyed first years, the delicious Welcoming Feast and the subsequent food coma, and your new Head duties. You and your yearmates laugh and chat and play games well into the early hours of 2 September 2023.

Eventually the novelty of returning to school wears off and you have settled into the routine of school again: classes, Quidditch (Al is Captain this year), studying, and Head responsibilities. You realize that you are spending more time this year with Scorpius than you have in years prior. After all, he is your Head Boy partner.

This summer, once you got over the excitement of getting Head Girl, and sat down to think about who your partner could be, you concluded that it had to be Scorpius. He is the second-ranked academically in your year (the first is still yourself, of course, but Scorpius is a lot closer than you would ever admit to your grudge-holding Daddy), and probably the most responsible of this year's seventh-year male prefects. Over the last couple years, studying with him and such, you've realized that he is honestly just another normal guy; he has friends, hobbies, passions, and a personality; he is respectful and soft-spoken, nothing like the demon-child that Daddy makes him out to be. After spending so much time working together, the two of you have a healthy relationship just between two longtime acquaintances. And this is how you behave for the first two months of seventh year, studying and working together.

At first, your cousins and friends worry for you, but they, too, have spent time studying with you and Malfoy in the library, so after a bit of your gentle persuasion, they back off, accepting that your relationship with the Head Boy is not antagonistic and is surprisingly conducive to a productive year.

Halloween passes, and you narrowly escape with your life from one of Al's pranks. Gryffindor wins its first Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw executes one of the greatest upsets in Hogwarts history by thoroughly trouncing Slytherin 290-60.

By mid-November, by some mutual unspoken agreement, you and Scorpius have started to open up more to each other, in that your conversations have progressed past monosyllabic dead ends; perhaps he was getting as bored of it as you. You talk about school, classes, which are hard, how you would change certain lessons because the instruction is not so great. You find out that Scorpius wants to be a Healer after Hogwarts, because his grandmother Narcissa spent the last several years of her life crippled by an early-onset neurodegenerative disease and he wants to help improve magical treatments of such diseases. You tell him that you want to go into aerospace engineering and chuckle at his blank expression at Muggle terminology.

Even so, you still lead separate lives. You spend most of your time with Alice and Dom, your cousins, or on the Quidditch pitch and you have no idea where Malfoy is most of the time.

When the Winter Ball rolls around, you wonder if you are good enough friends to go together, but this fantasy is short-lived as Dom and Alice set you up with Caleb Alistair, a seventh-year Hufflepuff, tall, slender, with a mop of golden-blond hair that falls into his eyes.

You meet him at the bottom of the staircase and he comments on how beautiful you look tonight as he offers you his arm. You fake a smile up at him, and walk with him into the Great Hall.

Halfway through dinner you have exhausted all possible small talk and an awkward silence falls punctuated occasionally by attempts to start a conversation that fall flat on their face. Eventually you cannot take it anymore, but you cannot escape with your friends they're all happily engaged by their dates, so you escape to get a drink. As you pop the cap off a Butterbeer, you notice Scorpius standing inconspicuously behind a potted palm tree, looking anxiously out at a table of his friends.

You walk up to him, he spots you and smiles slightly. You ask, "Why are you hiding?"

He laughs shortly, pauses as if considering denying that he's hiding, sighs and says, "I was set up. Caitlin Flint."

You laugh because you know exactly she's Beater for Slytherin Quidditch team, athletic, stocky, aggressive, and intimidating. You tease him gently, "Intimidated?" He makes a face and doesn't say anything, so you decide to share: "I was set up too, Caleb Alistair. He's nice enough, cute, too, but I was starting to think that he doesn't have much going on in that head of his, cuz he's unwilling to talk to the point of uncomfortable awkwardness." Then you smirk at him. "Sort of like us whenever we try to chat while studying."

He looks taken aback and protests. "Hey, I was just so taken with the material that I just..." He laughs and you gesture to a bench, where you sit with him for the next hour in companionable conversation before he stands up. You are a little disappointed, you've enjoyed the last hour, commentating on the music, and you ask, a little sadly, "Leaving already?"

He smirks at you. "No," and offers his hand to you with a slight bow. "Would like to dance?" The music is in 3/4 time of a waltz, but people on the dance floor are still randomly jumping up and down and you cast a concerned dance at them. He laughs again, "No, we have space here. Do you know how to waltz?"

You make a face, "Just the basic box and moving box." So he offers to teach you more. You spend the remainder of the evening with Scorpius in a quiet corner of the ballroom, learning how to waltz, tango, salsa, swing, and foxtrot.

At the end of the evening you are both laughing and you look up at him: "Thank you, Scorpius, for saving my evening and teaching me how to dance. I had no idea you are such a skilled dancer."

He smiles you've seen that smile much more frequently this evening than before and he says easily, "It was at my mother's insistence. She wanted to make sure I was properly cultured as a Malfoy should be. Well-rounded education and all that shit."

You chuckle, "Classy. But really. Thank you."

"No, the thanks all goes to you. You saved my evening."

"So it was mutual. Have a good Christmas Break, and Happy New Year."

"Same to you." He holds your hand in both of his for a moment before turning and walking back to the dungeons.

Fortunately for you, none of your friends saw your hours with Scorpius, so you only have to answer to Alice and Dom about why you ditched Caleb, which is simple enough. You go on to explain that you spent the rest of the evening curled up in a nook with a book. Astrophysics, naturally.


	7. Insanity

Standard disclaimer applies.

* * *

After winter holidays, you double your focus on studying for N.E.W.T.s, Al doubles the intensity of Quidditch practices. The only thing that hasn t changed is your Head duties with Scorpius, but even this feels cut down in comparison. You are surprised to find that you look forward to the time you spend with Scorpius as Heads; it's a break from the insanity of studying for N.E.W.T.s and the rest of your days. You enjoy spending time with Scorpius; you never feel like you have to do or say anything in particular; it's a very comfortable feeling.

Your days before N.E.W.T.s fall into a routine of class, study, Quidditch. The only break from the torturous routine comes in twice-weekly, hour-long organizational meetings with Scorpius, a.k.a. a half an hour of chatting and another half hour putting up a pretense of doing work. Somehow you still manage to come up with stuff for monthly meetings with Headmistress McGonagall.

You take N.E.W.T.s, execute several narrow saves with some fancy flying in helping Gryffindor to the Quidditch Cup (again) against Ravenclaw, and all of a sudden you find yourself staring at a half-packed trunk. It finally hits you as you stand there, staring, that you are never coming back. So you finish packing, applaud as Ravenclaw wins the House Cup, fidget with uncomfortable anticipation as you pile into the horseless carriages toward Hogsmeade station.

In the carriage with Dom and Al with his arm around Alice, it hits you again that you haven't spent any significant amount of time with Scorpius since your last Heads meeting the day after the Quidditch Cup.

You stand on the platform, unwilling to board the train before you say goodbye to Scorpius, when you see him making his way through the crowd. He's seen you and is making his way toward you. You grin widely and he returns the gesture. He stops in front of you.

You poke your tongue out at him and say, "I was looking for you."

"And now I've found you."

"I've enjoyed the last couple years, particularly this one. It's been nice, getting to know you, finding that my dad is entirely wrong in his perception of a Malfoy. I'm glad I got to know you." You hesitate before sticking out your hand, but instead of taking it, he wraps his arms around you in a hug, completely taking you by surprise.

He releases you, but still holds you by the shoulders as he says, "It's been nice getting to know you, too. Stay in touch, Rose!"

You watch as he walks off, then join your cousins and friends in your annual end-of-year tradition, Exploding Snap and endless snacks. But still, by the end of the train ride, you are not over your surprise at Scorpius' hug. You knew you were friends, but you had no idea that he thought you were close enough to hug.


	8. Letters

Standard disclaimer applies.

A/N: Sorry if I messed up the years, it's got me all confused.

* * *

Scorpius' first letter comes three days later, carried by a beautiful snowy owl.

15 June 2025  
Hi Rose,  
How is graduation treating you so far? What are your plans for your rocketeering company?  
I'm starting a summer internship at St. Mungo's in a week, and after I get my N.E.W.T. results in August they'll consider me for training starting in the fall, which should be no problem thanks to all that studying we did. But still, cross your fingers for me.  
Write back soon!  
Scorpius  
P.S. Sol won't leave until you write back. Don't worry, he doesn't bite.

You smile after reading the letter and pet Sol, who, correctly guessing that you aren't writing back right away, ruffles his feathers and sticks his head under his wing.

Hugo barges into your room, saying that lunch is ready, but stops short when he sees Sol. Eyeing the gorgeous owl suspiciously, he asks, "Whose is that?"

You smile innocently at him, causing his eyes to narrow further. "Scorpius'. We're penpals now."

Hugo, with the inherited Weasley distrust of any Malfoy and the brotherly protectiveness of any male "pals" of yours, grumbles, but wisely decides against arguing with you, knowing that he will lose (as he, and others, have before).

Later that night, you pull out a piece of parchment to reply to Scorpius. You pause, first considering your wording:

16 June 2025  
Hi Scorpius,  
It's good to hear from you. I'm excited for you, that you've found this Healer's internship so soon after graduating. You have to tell me all about your internship, and training, and everything. I'm doing well here, summer is wonderfully relaxing. By the time N.E.W.T. scores come in, Michael Cooper (you know him, he's our year's Ravenclaw boy prefect) and I will already be in America. Professor Saxby has a friend, Bob Miller, who lives in California and whose neighbor is on the hiring team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Saxby helped get the two of us set up with internships at JPL, and the rest of our group will be staying behind and gathering financial support for our company.  
Fingers crossed,  
Rose

You roll up your note, tie it to the owl's leg, and send Sol into the night.

The next note comes on Monday evening. Sol dumps the letter and flaps over to inspect a perch that you just asked your cousin Fred to carve for you, with a design of the Greek sun god Helios crossing the sky. With a hoot of approval, Sol turns and flies out of your window to go hunting, and you break the seal on Scorpius' letter.

23 June 2025  
Rose,  
Wow! America, that's exciting. I guess the weather will be quite a change. What's it like there? I'll make you a deal, I'll tell you everything about Healer training if you tell me everything about America and Muggle stuff, OK?  
Today was the first day of my internship. And ugh, I can't wait to start training. Because apparently all interns do is the stuff that no one else wants to do, such as cleaning out bedpans, carrying assorted stuff for Healers and running errands for whoever asks. They've already run me ragged. But oh well, I guess somebody has to do it, and some of these Healers seem very distracted by some incurable disease or another, and I will try to appreciate interns when it s my turn.  
Scorpius

Sometimes you wonder how a Weasley and a Malfoy could be in the same room as each other without fighting, much less help each other study or become friends. But you put these thoughts aside as you write your reply on Tuesday evening, send your note off with Sol, and go to bed.

* * *

You are back at Hogwarts. It's a sunny day, the sky is blue and white cottonball clouds scud across the sky. You are sprawled on the lawn, under a tree by the Black Lake, staring up at the sky. A hand, not your own, comes into your field of vision, and Scorpius says, "Look at that one, it looks like a Hydra." You turn your head right to look at his head of platinum blond hair and perfect features tilted toward the sky. Somehow you are not surprised that he's here too; you're just content bathing in the warmth of the June sun.

You hear a sound, another voice and find that it is yourself, laughing. "Yeah, and look at that one, it looks like the old American space shuttle."

"That one, it looks like a Snitch."

This one you cannot see, so you ask, "Where?"

"Right next to your space shuttle, here, let me point for you." You scoot closer to Scorpius, and he tilts his head and plants a kiss on your mouth. He starts to pull away, but you wrap your arms around him, so he deepens the kiss, you wriggle on top of him, he flips you over, and you wake up.

It's still dark outside, so you roll over and try to go back to sleep, vaguely wondering why you remember snogging Scorpius in your dream.

With your sense of morning clearheadedness, you conclude that the Scorpius in your dream was actually your brain's rendition of Dan. After all, it's been a while since you last heard from him, so you decide to write a quick note to him.

Hey Dan,  
It's been a while, how are you doing? How is the Spanish Ministry of Magic treating you?  
Rose

You are surprised to see that your owl, Halley, has returned by the time you come back, carrying a reply from Dan.

Hey Rose,  
Sorry I never replied to your last note, I was a bit busy moving back to London. Yep, I'm back, and I have a job with our Ministry. I'll tell you more about it in person. How's tomorrow sound? Let's meet at 2pm at Florean Fortescue's?  
Dan

You laugh and reply in the affirmative, grinning as you fall asleep.

* * *

So it turns out that Dan is the new Junior Assistant to the Ambassador to Spain. You spend the afternoon chatting with him, catching up, enjoying yourself. But before you stay too long and end up going to diner with him, you make your excuses to leave.

"Bye Dan, I've enjoyed today. Good luck with the Ministry."

He catches your hand, "_De nada. A mi me gustaba estar contigo tambien. Buena suerte en America._ Write me when you get there."

You stare blankly at him, he catches you in a hug, and you return home.

* * *

July passes uneventfully. You continue to owl Scorpius, usually about once or twice a week. You play Quidditch with your cousins, keeping Lily and Hugo in shape for the upcoming season. You hang out with Alice and Dom: Dom is starting a boutique store with her sister Victoire, and Alice and Al are still going steady. Al will be moving to York to play Quidditch, and Alice intends to go along, because there is a recently discovered cave covered with assorted ancient runes, her favorite subject, and wants to help explore.

You meet up with your astronomy co-conspirators, most frequently with Michael Cooper, planning your trip, preparing for your two-year work-study, touching up on the basic aerospace engineering knowledge necessary before you start.

By late July, you are ready. Your family, Michael's family, and your coworkers send you off.


	9. JPL

Standard disclaimer applies

* * *

3 August 2025  
Scorpius,  
California is amazing. There are palm trees everywhere, they're like a bit of fluffy cotton on a spindly stick, and it's 35 degrees C-ish daily (but these crazy Americans use the Fahrenheit scale, so I'm constantly converting between the two and I've gotten pretty good at it), the skies are blue and it's terrific. The senior researchers in the lab are shocked that we're so young, but after a week of training, it's been great. I've used all the Muggle science that I studied, and I'm learning more every day. I'm working in a rocket booster design lab, and Michael is working on designing a new Mars exploration robot. How is your internship going? Have you gotten N.E.W.T. results back yet?  
Fingers crossed,  
Rose

18 December 2025  
Scorpius,  
I'll be home in a week! I'm not so sure I'll be able to take the weather change, though. Here I can get away with wearing a sweatshirt and it's not very cold at all. Snow? That s a foreign concept to me. I can't imagine these palm trees dusted in white. But I am definitely looking forward to creaming Hugo in a snowball fight. I guess it's good to take a week's break; our project has run into a bit of a road block.  
How's your herbal remedy training coming? Do you have anything to help with calculus overload? ;) Recovered from your 10-hour surgery observation yet?  
Rose

4 April 2026  
Scorpius,  
At lunch the other day my labmates started talking about Muggle medicine. You should have heard us, rocket nerds talking something completely foreign. Anyways, this book came up, _The Emperor of Maladies_, it's about a disease called cancer. I've just started reading it, and it's really quite fascinating, Muggle medicine.  
Good luck with your Healer examinations. Don't forget all the signs of Flobberworm Rash.  
Fingers crossed,  
Rose

10 May 2026  
My dear Healer Malfoy,  
Congratulations!  
So, what s next?  
Rose

* * *

A/N: Sorry there's no letters from Scorpius in this chapter. I promise you he's not a dumb-butt and he does reply, but I'm a girl so I don't really know what Scorpius would say in reply, but do you get enough of an idea of what s going on just from Rose's letters?

Also, who's watched "West Wing"?


	10. Want to Meet Up?

Standard disclaimer applies.

* * *

You're walking through a dark tunnel. You've cast _lumos_, but your wand tip provides only a feeble light that illuminates nothing. Somehow you know that you are in the tunnel behind the humpbacked witch which leads to the basement of Honeydukes, so you keep going until the ground starts sloping up. When you climb out of the tunnel, you make for a little door on the wall, and crawl into the blankets laid inside on the gently sloping ground. As you shut your eyes and start drifting off to sleep, you feel someone else crawl in with you. You open your eyes to meet the steel gray of Scorpius Malfoy. You wrap your limbs together, kiss, snuggle closer, and wake up.

You are mystified by these dreams. They're not frequent, but they keep coming. This one's the third in a month. It's gotten to the point that you wonder, What was our friendship? Just that, a friendship, or could we have had something more? Did I ever have feelings for Scorpius? What about him for me? Could we have had something? What was that hug? Why does he keep owling me? It wasn't like we were that close of friends... In fact, I hear from Alice less frequently than from Scorpius.

You go home again for a week after Hugo's sixth year ends, spend time with Dom, Al and Alice, who are back visiting too, and the rest of your rocketeering group. You share plans to help convince investors of the legitimacy of your company, and try to avoid thinking about Scorpius.

No such luck.

* * *

20 June 2026  
Rose,  
St. Mungo's recently got a call from one of its affiliated hospitals in Los Angeles, California. They apparently are starting research into neurological disorders, and are trying to gather an international team. Naturally, I signed up, but so did about 30 other Healers, so imagine my surprise when I was among 5 picked to go. My boss went on a bit about young, inquiring minds, representing the London branch of St. Mungo's, and other such garbage. So I'm coming to L.A. in mid-July. It's a new place for me, and I'll be disorientated, so I might need a guide to show me around a bit... want to meet up? Let me know. I'll see you in the States, yeah?  
Love,  
Scorpius

* * *

A/N: Okay. Now I'm stuck. Scorpius and Rose are going to see each other in the States, maybe spend some time together... figure out their feelings for each other? I'm very stuck.

I have a little secret to tell you. This story is a bit autobiographical, the dreams are all real (modified for the Hogwarts world), and Rose's analyses of the situations are all based on my own, and part of the reason that I'm stuck is that I don't know if I'll ever see Scorpius' real-life counterpart again. So I don't know what'll happen. Maybe I'll update if I see him again but until then, this story is on indefinite hiatus.


End file.
